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In HotW the text for the West Anduin Vales mention the middle marshes south-west of Mountain Hall and the Wolfswood between the marshes and the Gladden-Anduin confluence p43/44.

Doing some research on Stilt houses gives some interesting pictures of reconstructed Iron Age dwellings and portrays them as very different from the crannogs of Scotland. Now marrying those pictures with some ideas based on the Fens of East Anglia and the Isle of Ely and the robbers and ne'er-do-wells that hid there during the 12th and 13th century gives me some interesting ideas about scenarios with grim hawks and robbers in ring forts.

One thing that I thought I'd throw open for discussion (especially as there are many 'experts' on boats here) is the form of the boats likely to be used by the hunting and fishing marsh-dwellers. I was considering some form of coracle (a framework of supple branches covered with a hide) as being probable based on their continued use in similar situations until fairly recent times.

So what sort of transport would the marsh-dwellers use for day-to-day travel about the marshes?

I think that coracle and other similar boats are quite reasonable in this situation.
Also considering that wood will probably be used more to build stilts and homes, rather than boats, having a wooden boat might be considered a status symbol in these territories.

Woodclaw wrote:I think that coracle and other similar boats are quite reasonable in this situation.
Also considering that wood will probably be used more to build stilts and homes, rather than boats, having a wooden boat might be considered a status symbol in these territories.

Taking that last statement into account, reed boats might be more common among the marsh-dwellers than wooden boats. Also rafts should be in use, yes?

Further research (more googling) has turned up the fact that currach (I think it's both singular and plural) are a largish version of the wicker-framed, hide covered vessel and can be ocean-going so obviously sizeable (a golden, votive? example from Ireland has 8 pairs of oars). There is speculation that woven cloth, water-proofed with pitch/tree sap, could make a much lighter coracle/boat.

The other options seem to be the log boat made from a single hollowed log and a version where sides are built-up on a single log keel using planks. Flat-bottomed boats built from a log, split and separated by a plank with built-up sides, seems to be a common form found in the UK.

Reed boats are found in cave paintings in Scandinavia but these seem to be dated to before 2500 C.E. making it unlikely that areas adjacent to cultures using barges/riverboats as are described for the River-folk in HotW. The techniques of clinker-built and carvel-built boat construction could easily be transferred by someone moving between the marshy are of the West Anduin valley and the banks of the Anduin itself.